Featured Articles: May 2011

This past Memorial Day weekend, I started the job of switching out my closets from my winter items to my summer things. I store the winter stuff; I wear the summer stuff. It's a biggish job.
I started to think about Peter Menzel's book Material...

Whenever I'm socializing with friends or family, invariably some part of the conversation is devoted to complaining. From the political, ("I'm sick of hearing about those stupid "Birthers"), to the financial (...

So I took a fairly significant leap forward this week in my quest to identify a teacher: I approached a long-time practitioner and asked her if she would take me on as a student.
I'll call this person "Lucy." I've known her for...

“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” – that was about the fact that the first change that takes place is in your mind. You have to change your mind before you change the way you’re living, the way you move. Gil Scott-...

One of the most vivid metaphors for the human condition that I've come across since joining the Interdependence Project is that of the Hungry Ghost. These Tibetan deities are not fully alive and crave food to fill their enormous bloated...

This last week I was the recipient of a group email debating the merits - or lack thereof - of using certain highly charged words. Among the questionable was "terrorist" - a word, I, in particular, find somewhat of an inflammatory...

We all dislike confrontation or anything that may put us in a situation that pushes our balance or our center off. Well, I hope we dislike it, as I think there are a few individuals that do like confrontation and thrive on it as a way of...

Like many people, my initial experience with meditation was solely as a relaxation technique. I'm grateful to have learned its basic principles in my yoga classes, where we were taught to sit quietly and breathe calmly, and...

Sometimes I question the merits of Yoga Journal Magazine. There are good ideas and inspirational sentiments to be found in this publication but it’s difficult to separate from the not always so subtle inclination of effective advertising...

I recently blogged about my recent withdrawal from a Zen seminary program with the Korean Zen Taego Order due to their recently revealed discriminatory policies and double standards with regard to women, gay & lesbian people, people...

This grief has been a rhythm of remembering and forgetting. I let him go only to discover, sometimes moments later, that I have somehow picked him up again, my chest caving in around him. Did he know how much I love him? Was he aware...

In about an hour and forty minutes, New York is supposed to experience a catastrophe, according to some people (yep, the rapture). Other locations in the world already hit the 6pm mark that was supposed to signal the beginning of the end of...

Is it breaking the Hinayana discipline to smoke cigarettes?
Before Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment he was a confused twenty and thirty-something looking to learn how to live a spiritual life. Each week in this column we look...

Yeah. I'll admit it. I watch Mob Wives - "a docu-soap series that follows the lives of four women at a crossroads, having to pick up the pieces and carry on while their husbands or fathers do time for Mob-related activities."...